The following are highlights of a new First We Feast interview with
Ryback:
On what he likes to eat and if he can cook: “Right
now, I’m here in Vegas. I got whole wheat protein pasta cooking and a whole
pound of steak cut up, loaded on a low simmer, cooking as well. That will be my
first real meal of the day. I’ll take that, pour it all in a big bowl with a
little bit of pasta sauce. When I’m home, that’s usually my first meal every
day. That, or low fiber oatmeal with natural peanut butter. From there, every
two, two-and-a-half, three hours, I eat something. It’s usually steak, grilled
chicken, tuna fish, eggs, egg whites, brown rice, sweet potatoes. I eat the same
meals over and over again all throughout the day. I got my protein shakes. I
usually try to get one or two of those down a day, just straight natural whey
isolate. That’s pretty much it, as far as what I eat.
When I’m home, I got my places. We have a Port of Subs here near me. When I’m
home, I usually like to swing out there once. I’ll get a foot-long wheat bread,
light mayonnaise, and double steak sub. At Panda Express, I’ll get grilled
chicken, brown rice. No matter where I go, it’s always pretty much the same
regular foods.
For my first meal on the road, I always like to go sit down, especially on
live event days. I’m very fond of Applebee’s because they’re the same everywhere
you go. We’re always in different places, and I like to go to a place where no
matter what Applebee’s I go to, it’s like the same one as going to the
Applebee’s at home. It gives me a sense of stability while I’m on the road.
Besides that, their food is awesome. I’ll go there and I’ll always get the
French onion soup. I’ll get 10 chicken wings with the bone in, and then usually
a steak, vegetables, and roasted red potatoes.
I’m pretty consistent with all that, but I can cook. I’m just very simple,
though. I’ve got some garlic salt, some sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne
pepper. Those are pretty much all the spices that I use, and I go from
there.”
On WWE catering: “I have a routine when I go to WWE
catering. I go in there, and we got the paper plates and the forks and
everything. I always load up three, four, five plates—not individual plates, but
three or four stacks on top of each other to reinforce my first plate. I put so
much food on there, the last thing I want is while I’m walking from the food to
the table is [for] the plate to break or slip out of my hand ’cause it bends.
There’s that much food on my first plate. My first meal of the day when I get to
TV is ridiculous. Every time, there’s somebody that just looks at me like, ‘Oh
my God, you’re going to eat that?’ I’m like, ‘Every week, you guys say this.
It’s not a surprise anymore.’ There’s always a large amount of food whenever I’m
around.
It’s always either brown rice or white rice. You have your soup of the day.
It’s not all the time we’ll have a chilli. They’ll put out the cheese and sour
cream and the chives and the jalapeños. I know that WWE catering chilli is
always a hit every time they have it. Sometimes, they’ll even do a turkey one or
a little healthier one. Whenever we have that, I’ll make sure to get a bowl
usually at some point in the day.
I’m pretty simple as far as what I eat. I’m usually steak and chicken all
throughout the day. I go to tuna fish later on as I get closer to the show as
that’s a little bit lighter for me. But early in the day, it’s usually chicken,
steak, brown rice, or sweet potatoes, and then I go from there.
As we go down, we have our salad bar. The popular one is the sweets.
Sometimes, we walk in and they just have the entire place decked out with
sweets. They’ll have a sweet table. They’ll have a cake up right by the front.
It’s like, ‘Why the hell’s this cake sitting right here? [It’s] just random. Are
they trying to make us eat this or to see how strong we are?’ I don’t eat a lot
of sweets, but that’s usually the popular place to go amongst talents after a
Tuesday show taping SmackDown if you’re done with your match or you’re done with
your segment or you’re not booked for the night.”
Check out the complete interview at FirstWeFeast.com.
